It is a big week for Leeds Rugby Foundation with the launch of their brand new logo at the Rhinos Playoff game.
Monday-We found out that the Rhinos would be playing on Saturday at Headingley Stadium which means a quick turnaround to get everything for the logo launch in place. So it’s straight into a meeting on Monday morning to discuss the logistics for the ideas we had. One idea we were keen to pursue was abseiling the logo off the south stand with the help of the military. However, with such short notice about when the game was to be played we didn’t have time for this idea to be put into place. We decided to have Ronnie Rhino and the Rhinos’ cheerleaders to unveil the new logo with our new banners and teardrops. We spent the day planning everything we had to get into place, for example the signage, business cards, music for the launch and staffing for the match.
Tuesday- I started the day off today at Headingley Stadium for a meeting with the team that are organising the John Holmes Memorial Golf Day. In the meeting we discussed how many teams we had entered into the tournament, which prizes we had in place and how we would make a final push to get more teams on board.
Once back in the Kirkstall office it was straight back on to the logo launch. Artwork for the banners had been sent over to be approved so we spent the morning feeding back our amendments. Business cards were also signed off today to be printed by Friday. I designed these to be generic business cards for the foundation to give out at events. Finally, we chose the song to use for the launch which was The Script feat. Will-i-am- Hall of Fame. We chose this as it was upbeat and current.
Wednesday- It was another busy day in the office today with the logo launch. I spent some of the day writing the speech for the MC to announce at half time when the logo is unveiled. I then wrote a press release to be sent out to one of our trustees. I then made data collection sheets so that we could increase our data base from children at the playoff games that wanted to take part in our Tackle Time activity.We can then use these details to inform Rhinos Fans about our upcoming events and activities around Leeds.
The foundation team page on our website needed updating with the three latest team members so I liaised with the website management company Sotic to get these updated along with photos of the team.
I ended my day by doing a final push at promoting the John Holmes Memorial Golf Day amongst Leeds Rugby Foundation Trustees and through Facebook and Twitter.
Thursday- I started the day up at Headingley Stadium for the pre match operations meeting with other staff members at Leeds Rugby. The meeting was to discuss the logistics surrounding the game and to inform the other staff members of the Foundation’s pre match and half time activities. We had to discuss in detail where to position the bouncy castle for the pre match tackling activities taking in mind electrical points and health and safety.
Rebecca and I then went to the club shop to kit ourselves out in Rhinos gear to wear at the game!
Today the banners and orient were delivered to the office so we checked these were ok…we were very happy with how they had turned out! The 5000 business cards were also delivered today. Final touches then needed putting in place such as labelling up the collection buckets in the Foundation’s new logo for the South Leeds Leopards to do a pre match bucket collection on behalf of the foundation.
Friday- I again started off my day up at the stadium to print off the signage for the pre match activities and lots of copies of our new logo! The rest of the day was spent putting the final touches for our plans for the game in place and make sure everyone knew what they were doing.
Saturday-Match day had arrived!
I got to the stadium for half 4 where I attended a pre match briefing with the marketing team to ensure everyone was aware of the running order. I then went up to all the corporate suites to put out business cards to each place to get the word of the foundation out. We had organised for Gary Hetherington to interview one of the boys who attended the Outward Bound programme in the Premier suite as an example of the programmes that the foundation runs. We then made sure the bouncy castle was in place for the Tackling activity which Tony and Danny manned and that Ronnie Rhino was ready for photos to be taken with fans behind the logo. I helped out with the data collection at the tackling activity. At kick off we then made sure the collection buckets were collected in and we got half an hour sit and watch the Playoffs!
At half time it was time to launch our new logo! Me and Jonny got cameras to film the activities and our new banners and tear drop were brought on to the pitch by the dancers and the announcer spoke to the crowd about the work of Leeds Rugby Foundation.
I thought the logo launch was a great success and was topped off by a victory by the Rhinos!